Glenn Standish, Director of Studies at IH Toruń, recently presented as part of the Speak for IH programme at the 33rd International IATEFL Poland Conference held in Gdańsk. The title of his workshop was ‘Student-centred activities to consolidate lexis’. He shares his experience below.
A busy time of year
This was my 2nd time speaking at an IATEFL Poland conference and indeed my 2nd time presenting as part of the Speak for IH programme. Usually, the IATEFL Poland conference comes at the busiest time of the year between teacher induction week and the new academic year so it’s very difficult to attend it. This year was no exception, however, as the conference was being organised by my friend Rob Howard, the new president of IATEFL Poland, and was also being held in Gdansk which is not too far from Toruń – I made sure I made it this year!
The workshop
My workshop focused on the importance of not only just boarding emergent language but also that it must be recorded and then of course consolidated.
I showed the simple technique of using word bag cards to record the language. This is something that IH Toruń has been doing for years – it’s an old-school, tech-free version of Quizlet where students complete physical cards with the new language/definition/example sentence and then they go into a bag for consolidation.
I then showed an array of student-centred activities to help consolidate the new language aimed at all ages from VYLs to adults. These included student-generated bingo where students choose the language to be included in the game and create their own gap-fill sentences. I also covered VYL activities such as the bridge game in which students have to try and cross a ‘bridge’ of flashcards and the cuddly toy throwing game in which the teacher calls out a word (e.g. ‘a rabbit’) and the students have to throw a cuddly toy at the correct corresponding flashcard around the classroom.
The workshop was very interactive and dynamic and I managed to get some of the participants up and about. The key is to involve your audience as much as possible just like you would expect to involve your students in class.
The session was scheduled for later in the 2nd day and to be honest I was expecting just a handful of tired participants. To my surprise the workshop was extremely popular to the point that the room was at its full capacity and an extra 15-20 participants ended up watching the session on benches through the open door. The audience was mainly Polish state school teachers but there were also private language school teachers, fellow conference presenters and representatives from the publishing houses such as Macmillan.
Positive feedback
After the talk ended, quite a few people approached me and said they really enjoyed the session and that they had learnt a lot of new things. One participant Charles Goodger (the Founder of FunSongs Education) wrote that “Glenn gave an exciting and well-attended workshop at IATEFL Poland. Lots of creative and dynamic ideas for helping learners internalise vocab”.
I highly recommend talking on behalf of IH at a conference. It’s a great experience to add another string to your ELT professional bow and you will really relish the experience and love every minute.